Pasco teen admits to assault on officer

A 16-year-old Pasco boy will go to prison after admitting Tuesday that he pointed a gun at a police officer while being sought in an earlier gang shooting.

Alejandro "Alex" Leon pleaded guilty in Franklin County Superior Court to one count of first-degree assault with a firearm.

He was running from Pasco Officer Michelle Goenen on June 8 when he dropped a .357 Magnum revolver. He bent down, picked it up and pointed it at the uniformed officer, but left without firing at Goenen.

Leon also is known by the street moniker "The Kid." He was wanted in a June 6 shooting incident.

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Police had been called out to South Douglas Street for reports that several teen gang members had gotten into an argument. One person had displayed a handgun and fired it, but officers could not locate anyone who had been shot.

The following day, Eliodoro B. Salcedo, 17, was arrested on an outstanding warrant. While on the way to the juvenile detention center, Salcedo reportedly disclosed that he had been at an east Pasco home June 6 when "Alex" showed up and mocked Salcedo's gang, then shot his rival in the left thigh after a brief argument, court documents said.

Salcedo and a witness identified Leon as the shooter in a photo lineup, documents said.

Then at 10:03 a.m. June 8, Goenen was at Broadway and Sycamore streets in her marked patrol car when she spotted Leon with a revolver.

After the confrontation between Goenen and Leon, the Tri-City Regional SWAT team was called out and three nearby schools were locked down for about four hours. Officers eventually arrested Leon as he tried to run from a home that SWAT had surrounded.

The fully loaded revolver was found in a yard where Leon had been seen running.

Goenen testified at a previous hearing that she didn't shoot at Leon because there was a trailer behind him and she was worried someone might be hit if she missed.

Judge Vic VanderSchoor ruled in September that Leon should be tried as an adult.

As a part of the plea deal, Deputy Prosecutor Brian Hultgrenn agreed to amend charges against Leon by dropping a second count of first-degree assault.

Salcedo "is uncooperative with the state and unavailable for testimony," Hultgrenn said. He noted Leon's age and lack of felony history, and said in court documents that it was "in the best interests of justice" to make the changes because Leon was willing to enter a plea to the officer's assault.

Sentencing is set for March 15.

Leon faces between seven years and nine months to 10 years and three months in prison, along with a three-year mandatory term for using a gun in the crime.

Prosecutors said in court documents that they will recommend a sentence on the lower end of the range without the additional time for possessing the firearm. They also will ask that he be placed on three years of community supervision once back in the community.

Leon will go to a Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration facility until he is 18, then to a state Department of Corrections prison.